Suggested Retail $5.95. Discounted only during review drive. Young Adult Fiction flavored with action, humor and romance with a dystopian/sci-fi flareEnjoyed by teens and adults alike, safe for kids

Senior year is hard enough for Alysse Simms with looming exams, a harpy teacher, and a long time crush falling for her best friend. Then her curiosity got her involved with guerrillas, a bomb, and a genocidal plot. Now she has to decide who to trust, while she and her friend Pete ask questions everyone else avoids--probably because they're scared of the truth.

And they should be . . .

"(Desert) is a futuristic picture of a society segregated by stations of wealth and privilege will make you think.​In many ways (Alysse's) world is chillingly familiar." --Peter H., N.Y.

"Made the mistake of starting this book in the middle of the day and was unable to accomplish anything because I couldn't put it down! CAN'T WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE!!" --Kristi, Goodreads

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Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Three things inspired the creation of Desert: a poster, a dream, and a newsclip. The author spotted the first inside a teen section of a locallibrary. It showcased an attractive guy and girl with super human strength, standing together, ready to fight. What caught the author's attention most was the cold, hard look in their eyes, making them appear not unlike the bad guys they were about to defeat.

A.Tebbs decided to write a book with a kind-hearted heroine, one who doesn't turn calloused. She wrote in early mornings and late nights, squeezing Desert into her hectic schedule. Then, after three years ofworking, she received a scathing peer review. Rather than give up,the author hit the drawing board, taking two more years to create theDesert we now enjoy.

From the Inside Flap

Senior year is hard enough for Alysse Simms with looming Global Union assessment exams, a harpy teacher who hungers for her humiliation, and a long time crush falling for her best friend.

Only, Alysse has bigger problems--like the enemy preparing for another civil war,a seismic bomb, super human guerrillas, disappearances, and a genocidal plot that could spark a war.

As Alysse digs to learn more than what she's taught at the Academy, she must choose who to trust, including Pete, a guy who walks his own path.Together, they ask questions everyone else avoids.

Probably because everyone else is scared of the truth.And they should be . . .

Top customer reviews

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Pros: I enjoyed the story. The author made me care about the characters and what happened to them. The worldbuilding was probably the best part, with an interesting dystopian setting complete with well-thought-out societal issues.Cons: The writing is very rough, with LOTS of typos and grammar errors. (I advise the author to get a better editor!) One mistake that I saw over and over again was in punctuating direct quotations. Also, there were a lot of very awkward sounding dialog tags: things like, "Hello," I greet, and "We don't have all day!" he demands.Normally I will abandon a book after a few pages when it has that many errors or so much awkward writing. However, in this case the story was good enough to keep me reading in spite of it all.

I received an ARC of this novel courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

This is my first ARC review and I’m excited. At the same time I realized I’m probably a terrible ARC reviewer because I tend to be critical.

For the most part I really enjoyed the story but this feels like it is still a bit rough around the edges. I had many questions that went unanswered over the course of the story. Some I understand will likely be explained in later books but I feel some of the missing information is crucial to the plot.

The basic plot is 17 year old high school student, Alysse, lives in city completely surrounded by a wall, Oasis. Outside the wall live the Dissentors, a group of traitors, from the last civil war 15 years ago. Alysse accidentally discovers a plot to eliminate the Dissentors once and for all. As she and her friends dig further it appears the government is not as innocent as they seem. Lots of action, car chases, and narrow escapes from bad guys.

My biggest complaint with this book is the world building. I have so many questions that went unanswered. I believe we are in the US -What has happened? How did we get to a walled city? How far in the future? What was the 2nd civil war exactly? Was this just Oasis’s problem? What about the rest of the world? Are other towns having this issue too? Is there no higher government controlling this town? What is the Global Union? What is their purpose? We see other statesmen, where are they from? If the Dissentors have this entire 3 state size lost territory why are they living like hobos outside the walls? Why are the Dissentors “traitors”? What did they do? Why did they start a civil war? What was the catalyst?

Another big distraction from the main plot was simply the character overload. Between just the prologue and the first chapter (18 pages). We have 14 named characters introduced with descriptions of all of them. As well as for the students what their parents do for a living. It really was information overload. I kept having to go back the the beginning and look up characters names again to try to remember who they all are. I felt many of the characters especially in the school were unnecessary. (More characters are listed in other chapters). Some of the characters behaviors are never explained. Why does Dr. Harden treat Alysse so terribly? It later says she is an elitist and doesn’t like Alysse. (Who you don’t learn until 200 pages into the book is on a scholarship). Dr Harden’s behaviors go above and beyond a simple dislike. Clearly Alysse’s parent’s have some secret past but we never get to dive into that. Why is Alysse’s mom so insistent on delivering supplies to the compound? They tell her it is dangerous. A person just recently died and she bullies her way out of the wall? Why? What is her motivation?

I was so lost with most of the abbreviations. The story would talk about the Global Union on one page and then 6 pages later talk about the GU. I was constantly trying to flip pages back to figure out what they were talking about. In one instance I know and abbreviation was used for several pages and it wasn’t explained until 5 pages after what it stood for. I would remove all abbreviations. Even the obvious ones like BF for best friend.

I was confused by all the emoji symbols that appeared throughout the book. I later learned if you subscribe to the mailing list you get additional information or scenes related to the symbols, but without that information listed anywhere beforehand in the book it was confusing.

Another complaint is midway trough the book our main character starts having visions of the future when she is in danger. These are NEVER explained. The main character goes oh that was weird and goes on with her day like nothing has happened. Why is she getting visions? What is going on? This feels pretty major here.

There are also several chapters devoted to Alysse and Peter’s health and weight loss journey. I mean we get examples of meals and exercises, it really is a lecture in the middle of the dystopian novel. I don’t know it broke up the flow of the plot to me and felt like extra fluff that could be removed to make way for more world building.

What is the significance of potted irises?

The dialogue gets a bit cheesy at times. (Especially the beginning) however it does improve as the novel goes on. I feel that is a theme throughout the book it gets better as you move along. The beginning is so slow. The plot is interesting and you are siding with the characters as they are trying to uncover the truth.

Overall this book is easy to read and I found the plot enjoyable. I would say it needs a bit of fine tuning on the world building and some purging of characters.

This is a debut novel for the author and I know she intends to continue this as a series.

I really enjoyed this book! It is fast paced, easy to read, and hard to put down! I loved the characters and am excited to see what comes next in this series! If you liked Hunger Games, Matched, or Divergent, you will love this book too! I recommend it for all ages!

Inside the Wall by A. Tebbs is a fun and action-filled dystopian YA novel that really packs a punch! If you enjoyed The Hunger Games or The Divergent Series, you will love this one!

Note: This is the first book in the Desert series.

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

The prologue was awesome! It was short, but it really got me interested, even though I didn't really understand what the deal was... Thankfully, the world building came later.

However, after the prologue, the book slowed way down for me for awhile. I just wasn't really interested in a fair chunk of it simply because it revolved around the typical high school scene, complete with ridiculous bullies, teachers that would single out that one student, and drama about teenage crushes... Of course this allowed readers to get to know both the characters and the history of the world they were living in. But because of my lack of interest, it just seemed really slow.

That all being said, once I was hooked, I was totally captivated until the very last page! The storyline hit a point where things took a turn and I couldn't read fast enough! Turns out, the short prologue had actually set the tone for the rest of the book! Unfortunately, that is where I will have to leave that thought in order to prevent spoilers... But trust me, you need to pick this one up on a day off so you can read straight through!

Even though the beginning of this book was a bit slow for me, the second half totally made up for it! I just couldn't put the book down after it took a turn! Gah! I need to know what happens next!

Immediately after finishing this book, I went to the authors website to see if there were more books from the series out yet. I see in the footer of the page that there are two more listed, but the links are not live. I'm assuming this means they're not published yet. Darn! I need to get my hands on them as soon as they are available!

I would highly recommend this book to readers that enjoy YA dystopian stories!

Desert is a great beginning of a new series. The author draws you into this possible future right from the start. I think the best part of this book are the characters. The main character is engaging and I liked watching her grow and develop her strength through the challenges she faces. I also like how she interacts with her friends as the story develops.

I received an ARC of this novel courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.